Being crafty

I got influenced by seeing a lot of albums with autumn - related crafts and got the urge to give it a try and take some cute pictures of Teodor being covered in paint from head to toes. I did learn following:

• Children who do not like their hands being dirty, won't enjoy doing hand-dirtying crafts.
• It is kind of pointless to do crafts just because everyone else is doing it :) Teodor was ok, but no joy in it. He was so happy when I put him in the bath and he could splash the water.
• I, personally, did enjoy it and next time I'm going to do the leaf-stamping on my own. Then I will make my spouse to hang it on the wall. :)

He could actually stamp the leaf. 

Done

His car got dirty by going over the fresh paint. He was not happy.

More car rides.

Btw. he got the red car yesterday and since then he doesn't leave it from his sight. He takes bath with it, he sleeps with it, he eats with it...

Extending our Melissa and Doug toy family

I wouldn't say we love Melissa and Doug toys but we like them a bit more than Hapé and unfortunately, there is not much other choice in Estonia. Ok, Goki, but I don't like shop assistants working in Looduspere, they should be much much nicer for the money I spend there. 

I guess it was in August when I had an urge to buy some more toys because nothing seemed to make him happy, so I bought this cutting fruits. He is able to cut the banana and the melon. The other ones are still too difficult. Contrary to that, he can use force to dismantle the other fruits. He is also trying to put it back together. It is still not an activity he would choose often, but I can sense he will enjoy it a bit later when his fine motor skills improve a bit more.

I sometimes read that this is a totally pointless toy, one should rather let the child cut real fruit. We do it with bananas, but this is clean and can be repeated over and over. 

Together with the fruits, I bougth him this stamping set, 4+. At the beginning it seemed like he is really too young for it, he tried to draw with the stamps, but lately he has figured it out and is stamping like crazy. He needs assistance as he closes the ink box and cannot open it on his own. And of course, he has to be supervised where he is stamping because...well, cleaning the carpet or dog is not fun. He also likes to play just with the stamps, take them out, put them back in, say "brm-brm-brm" or "sh-sh-sh".

Finally, the newest member of our Melissa and Doug family, a huge bead maze to replace the simple one we used to have.

The simple Melissa and Doug bead maze, which was replaced.

The new, more challenging bead maze.

I noticed him playing a lot with the simple bead maze like two weeks ago, then we visited several institutions where they had the IKEA one (where did they get it if there is no IKEA in Estonia???No fair) and he would spend 20 minutes playing with it on his own. Mother's dream. Seriously. So it was decided we HAVE TO buy him something bigger and more complicated. Got a really good deal on this one, bought it from a woman whose child didn't play with it much, but it was still half-price and in mint condition. We usually buy him new toys because people usually don't sell used toys which would go with what we believe in...and also we are lazy to look for good deals. Anyway, he loves it. And that's what's the most important.

New books

I ordered him some well-praised books plus one with a steering-wheel I haven't heard about before. Guess

which one is his favourite!?

It was kinda surprising it is battery-operated, but he loves all the noises the book makes, so it's actually a good thing because it makes him busy for a few minutes :) A few months ago I would be probably horrified that our child is playing with a battery-operated toy but the second pregnancy teaches me to be more laid-back because it doesn't matter that much or does it?

That child is just unbelievable

I don't know what had happened but it became quite a regular thing that he tends not to sleep for a few hours at night. If he played quietly (or even a bit noisily), I guess I would be fine. But he screams most of the time and it seems like there is not much I can do about it. Wish this was over soon, it is unbelievable to see how much one can survive if they have to.

YESSSS!

He has finally figured out how to build a tower out of Lego Duplo blocs. :) So now he can rotate the blocks correctly and he knows he has to push them in. Who would expect it would be so challenging? 

Afternoon in our forest

I have so many other things to do but in order to procrastinate I would like to share some pictures from today.

Teodor didn't sleep much at night and his midday nap didn't last long enough either, so you can imagine how user-friendly he was...as it was a nice warm autumn day, I decided to take him for a walk into the forest. Great idea. So many things to do there.

First we made some lunch together

We had to go back home to get the car.

We saw a frog. He kept standing there and pointing for quite a while even though the frog had been long gone.

Chasing butterflies.

Picking up cranberries

Eating cranberries

He loves sitting on something low.

On the way back home he requested to stop at our playground.

Panic

It hit me really hard today that we must have been totally crazy to do this all over again. 

Out of order?

It's 8:40 and he is still sleeping! :-o I am pretty sure he's gonna be ill :-( Not to mention this totally ruins our day plan...Otherwise, it is awesome! He hasn't slept this long since June when we came back from Czech and went to sleep at 2am.

Simple day

The other day I was reading about Simplicity Parenting (no, I didn't keep the link) and that is something I want to read more about, seems very interesting...Anyway, there was a thought that children can be bored, so they would find something to do on their own, it is not parents' job to constantly entertain them.

Today was a great day to give it a try, raining, feeling sick, so I sat on the floor (sitting in front of my pc wouldn't work) and watched him go. He could spend 15 minutes just sitting (jumping) on my lap investigating a beer lid...he would spend a lot of time just walking around, spinning, climbing the coffee table, torturing the dog...It was kinda fun.

Craving routine

You read it everywhere, children love routines. And you know it is true and you keep the days more or less the same. Then, one day, you (you + your tot) have a cold, it's a depressing rainy September day, so you decide to stay in because the dog wouldn't want to walk in this weather anyway and you want to keep your son warm and dry. The more the afternoon shifts to the evening, the more anxious your child gets, he takes more trips to the front door and he starts saying "brm brm" more often (his word for everything with wheels, in this case for his motorbike). Suddenly it hits you. He needs his afternoon trip outside. So you start getting him dressed, you can see in his eyes the contentedness that he was understood and there is no change in his day-rhythm.

For some reason he didn't want to ride on his motorbike, we carried the motorbike all the way, but he seemed happy, at the end he requested going to the playground where he got all wet and sandy. So much for keeping him warm and dry. Even if it is not raining, the child still needs to wear his water-proof clothes.

My point is that he seems to love the routine and he doesn't like it to be disturbed. He seems fine with different routines when we are out of home, but he wants the days to be the same when we have nowhere to be.